Paint rollers have been known for years and are acknowledged to speed up the painting of large surfaces as well as providing a good finish; better than a brush or a paint pad may do. When it comes to painting on one surface close to an adjoining surface at an angle to the surface being painted, the ability to paint close to the adjoining surface without paint getting on the adjacent surface has resulted in paint rollers or pads being modified in order to provide a clean line of the painting surface to the adjacent surface without paint impacting on the adjacent surface.
U.S. Patent Publication 2002/0073500 A1 published Jun. 20, 2002 of Pavlou discloses a paint roller providing a guide means for attachment to the cap of the free end of the roller distant from the handle. The guide means has a first closed end and a second end, attached to the distal end of the paint roller. The closed end has one or more apertures and spring biased bearing means mounted on the guide means wherein the bearing means project through the aperture(s) to guide the paint roller along the adjacent surface close to the junction of the two surfaces. The roller is designed and configured so that the sleeve extends along the roller right to the closed end and paint on the sleeve at the end can move across the face of the closed end unless extreme caution is taken. Further, with the spring biased guide means, the user of the paint roller must be careful not to exert too much sideways pressure on the paint roller or else the bias of the spring is overcome, the ball bearing depresses and the clean line of paint intended will be lost. This is particularly the case when one is painting a ceiling or wall overhead with an extended handle.
Accordingly, the Pavlou device requires careful concentration to be sure that the pressure applied to the paint roller when adjacent the second wall or the like does not overcome the spring bias, particularly if paint on the roller has leaked across the closed end.